Thacker writes that stories were published in February about top agency officials downplaying the link between hurricanes and global warming. He continues:

At the time, Bush administration officials denied that they did any micromanaging of media requests for interviews. But a large batch of e-mails obtained by Salon through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that the White House was, in fact, controlling access to scientists and vetting reporters.

And this little exchange with Thacker and NOAA press officer Kent Laborde offers a nice demonstration of the power of the Freedom of Information Act.

When NOAA press officer Laborde was contacted to discuss the e-mails, he denied that interviews were subject to approval from White House officials. Confronted with his own e-mails, however, he said, “If you already knew the answer, why did you ask the question?”

The Energy Department today released its Climate Change Technology Program Strategic Plan, which “details measures to accelerate the development and reduce the cost of new and advanced technologies that avoid, reduce, or capture and store greenhouse gas emissions” according to a DOE press release.

It seems that the plan fails to require any specific reductions in global warming pollution at all. The report released today by the Department of Energy’s Climate Change Technology Program is merely a laundry list of technologies–many of which do not exist today at all or in any practical form–that could allow us to reduce our emissions if they are adopted.